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Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Eat! You're Too Thin!

Those are words that I haven't heard in years. Yeah, I was a skinny kid. Skinny teen. I got married at the end of my teens and...ahem....blossomed. So no one was telling me I needed to eat then.

I never thought I'd read (or hear) "Eat! You're too fat!"

Let me explain. I'm trying to lose weight (Call me Captain Obvious). In order to lose weight I'm moving more and watching those carbs (also doing that because of insulin issues and doctor said to do it).

Sometimes I step on the scale and see a loss. YAY! Sometimes I step on the scale and see a gain. BOO!But why the see-saw scale numbers? It's so frustrating I could pull my hair out.

Yes, I know about water fluctuation. Losing inches even though the scale doesn't move. I know I should be happy my clothes fit better. I have over 30 pounds left to lose. Somewhere in there I should see a drop in weight!

I decided to start tracking my eats again to make sure I was getting the recommended amount of protein for me (76-159 grams) and staying within my carb limits. I must do everything I can to get this weight off. I'm sick of struggling with it. It's time to hit goal!!

Tracked today and after entering my food for the day (I did this early in the day) and I was below 900 calories. That included a dessert. That's not enough. There are side effects of going below 1200 calories. And they're not good. Slowed metabolism, muscle loss among other things.

I'm not sure if this has been my general trend or not because today was my first day tracking and I'm too lazy to go back and see what my other days were. But today was a bit of an eye opener for me. 1200 calories is the minimum I'll go. But the Atkins book says I should be eating between 1500-1800 calories. Obviously I'm way low on my caloric intake. And being too low can actually be bad for weight loss. At least that's what I've read.

Plus I'm running and adding strength training. This just won't do.

What is weird is that I'm hardly hungry eating this way. Sometimes I have to make myself eat. Like today I didn't want a snack but I made myself eat it.

I'm hoping this tracking business will help me get/stay on track. Today was a bit experimental but I hope to be more on top of it tomorrow. And I don't plan to do this forever. Right now I'm just focused on getting to goal. I'll do whatever it takes. If it means I measure things and enter them into a tracker then so be it.

By the way, I'm using Sparkpeople because it's easy and free. Both good things in my book.

I'm so confident that I'll see major changes in my body that I'm taking the dreaded "before" picture (which will actually be a "during" picture for me since I already have a terrible "before" picture) and I'll be in a swimsuit. There will be some shots in undies but the world shall never see those. For me only. Swimsuit maybe. Eventually. Or not. I don't even want to see it right now!---------------------------------

Exercise: upper body. Thought I was going.to.die. Seriously. What sick individual came up with so many ways to do pushups?!Close arm wall push ups 2 sets of 12Tricep dips with straight legs 2 sets of 12Reverse plank 2 sets at 30 secondsTwo-part pushups 2 sets of 12 (worst exercise ever!)One-arm side pushups 2 sets of 12Collapse Oh, wait. That's not an exercise. That's an effect of previous exercises.

Arms were jelly afterwards. But felt good to get it done.-------------------------------

Eats--Breakfast: 1 egg with a slice of cheese and bacon crumbles and some coffee with a tablespoon of cream

Lunch: 3 cups salad with a tuna pouch and some Greek vinaigrette

Snack: some kale chips (not really chips but dried salty bits of kale) and 2 oz. of deli rosemary ham. Later I also had a Sargento Pepper Jack cheese stick not pictured.

Dinner: Spicy Sausage and Kale soup topped with Parmesan. (recipe is in Low Carbing Among Friends book but you can see another review of the recipe HERE)

I didn't think this would be good but I was pleasantly surprised! Chuck was even unsure about it and kept sending me texts saying, "We're having steak, right?" "Didn't you say we were having steak?" "I'll fire up the grill when I get home for those steaks."

But he loved it. The kids loved it. I loved it. The soup was well loved.

Dessert: chocolate "pudding" made with a couple of tablespoons of cream, some cocoa and a little sweetener. Stir until thick then eat.

Drinks included enough water to fill a large kiddie pool, a can of Diet Coke, about 3 cups coffee, and a cup of green tea.

9 comments:

Your day looks great, and I can understand the frustration as another one of those every day'ers or multiple times a day at worst. It'll happen, and tracking was one of those necessary things for me too.

It is important to keep the calories above 1200 I think. I was finding the first couple of weeks with eating JC I wasn't hungry. It wasn't anything to do with the food, I think my mind just made me not want to eat. This week however is a different story. But my point is, I was under 1200 calories and was frustrated the scale wasn't moving like I wanted it to be (because like you I think I have the Mad Scale Disease as well). I am hungry this week and not having a problem keeping it above 1200 - having to control myself a bit more this week ... too many carbs in JC food. But I've started dropping in weight again (I hope.. or it's just water).You will get it all figured out Kelly. Find the right balance for you to sustain the exercise energy you need. And I agree, it was some sick individual that found all the different ways to do pushups. I'm still sore from last weekends stint with giving pushups a go again.... :)Have fun on your run today!

Eating super low carb can make you feel fatigued/tired as well - workout out muscles need glycogen for fuel and if your glycogen (which you get from carbohydrates - not just grains but even the carbs in fruits and veggies) is depleted your legs will feel like lead.

Hey! My husband made the dijon chicken recipe last night and we loved it. We had it leftover for lunch too. Thanks for sharing. I have also made the muffin in a minute things and I put a little butter on them warma and they are very tasty. I might have to try the oopsie rolls to for a hamburger bun idea. Thanks! Dawn

Searching for the 'magic' formula of calories and exercise can get really irritating. Sounds like you're on the right track though! I know you'll get that scale to move again! Great job on the upper body workout!